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Everything posted by Paul J

I emailed James West to question the definition of 'Exclusive' as the wording in the contract was not as detailed as his description in his video and had the following response.
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Thanks for you note for pointing out the discrepancy. The 50% rate allows you to sell direct to your customers by any means. We will review the contract wording but please take this email as confirmation of the broader definition in the meantime.
Best wishes
James

The meaning of EXCLUSIVE is different to how James West described it on the video before xmas, he said ‘sell those yourselves through your own direct sales channels, website and existing customers to retain the 50%’
No mention of Direct sales or existing customers in the fine print today, only mentions your personal website and print sales. I have emailed him for clarification.
Labeling something as Exclusive when it is not could result in the contract being terminated.

I made £4 from a photo in The Times, I typically get £90 for a live news image of the same size syndicated direct, but it was a stock image.
Exclusive or not, 50% or 40%, it doesn't mean much when your getting penny sales. They need to restructure the pricing more than anything else.

I'll take a guess and say your $13,937 has made you around £4,000 this year. Work out your travelling costs - 45p per mile, camera upkeep and upgrades plus insurance (your earning money from photography so need to have Public Liability). A drop in 20% may make your uploads not worth it, next year could be as low as £2500 for you.

I suspect "Live News" goes straight to the publications picture desk feeds, no downloading from Alamy. I do not use Alamy Live, but chose to syndicate images direct to the publishers for 100% of the money. All the UK papers and news websites have auto billing, no invoices needed. BUT, their system for payment misses lots, in the past year all the publications have missed payments totalling over £10,000 to me. Of course I have to chase it up to get paid, but I have to do extensive checking, every day to see if my work has been used in print or online. I have to go though every paper (online), and google key words and list everything. Takes about 30 mins a day. So imagine the vast volumes of images Alamy have published every day, it is impossible for them to keep on top of it. Not everything is bylined, look at the Daily Mirror.
Plus if someone buys an image for a quarter of a page, who checks it was used that size? Someone else mentioned copyright, I have billed and been paid for four lots of £500 this year for copyright breaches. A well written letter explaining copyright law and ignorance of it isn't an excuse, people pay up without argument. Billing top end for copyright infringements is something Alamy should be doing.
Syndicate Live News yourself people.

I have been using Alamy for just over two years now. With little success. I shoot a lot of Live News, but never use Alamy for that, I syndicate direct to the newspapers and news websites myself for 100% of the money. Alamy sell for a lot less than the standard reproduction rates due to subscription deals so make no sense whatsoever for me to use Alamy for that.
I have uploaded 2500 of my live news images after the event for stock, which includes other photos that is not what I would call news photos. I made about £165 from Alamy this year, but £400 last year. That is what Alamy paid me, none of this $1000 of sales nonsense. Why do people keep quoting their sales? it is meaningless as lots of sales are via 3rd parties so you get 30%. Turnover aside, the 2500 images was a test to see how Alamy works for me, IT DOESN'T, poor sales of pennies. I had a quarter page image in The Times this year and was paid £4 !!!, normally £90 if that sale is made direct, admittedly as it was stock I wouldn't have made the sale without Alamy, but for £4, I don't care as the time it took to upload that set and keyword, wasn't worth the hassle. My sales have dipped over 50% in a year, yes its a small sample of my tens of thousands of images. I won't be uploading as a further 20% cut in my revenue from Alamy is a joke. I have spent the time to add 3000 images, so won't remove them. But Alamy has lost out on having my archive.
So whats 60% commission from zero images Alamy?